You're REALLY going to try and get that jib about Microsoft in there? Christ, HN really has turned to shit. Get a clue, EVERY company does this. Stop fan-boying and learn to think for yourself.
To be completely honest, I love doing work on systems like PRISM. I don't want to be spied on, but working with big data (and some of the most interesting, at that) is a ton of fun. Yes, it's hypocritical, but I know most people have never had the opportunity to do so, making it hard for them to see both sides of it. The people who work on these systems like doing it, don't kid yourself.
I went to Caltech and worked at the JPL prior to going to Google. I can't say my time at Caltech was particularly worthwhile in terms of what I gained.
I work pretty high up at Google, and I (obviously) made this account to post in this thread. Google is effectively "dead" in my opinion, and this mirrors (at least in my experience) the feelings of many of our other higher-ups who are concerned with technology rather than the business. Everything has stagnated, it's no longer fun to work here, and it's entirely about making money now. The claims that we don't bend over for government agencies is entirely bullshit. Most of what they wanted was done without question (though I can't say how much of a choice we had). The company will continue, but you'll see us fall out of style, in a similar fashion to what has happened to Microsoft.